On what was probably one of the toughest days of her campaign so far, with pundits and analysts of all stripes declaring her presidential candidacy finished, Mrs. Clinton put on her battle face Wednesday and confronted what was at times a hostile crowd at a hastily arranged speech here at Shepherd University.
Shepherdstown, a quaint and hippieish town on the Potomac River in the West Virginia Panhandle, is where Robert E. Lee led his Confederate Army in retreat after the battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day of the Civil War.
Mrs. Clinton endured boos when she mentioned her proposal for a gasoline tax holiday, catcalls when she spoke of ending the Iraq war and, most difficult of all, the heckling of her daughter, Chelsea, who introduced her.
"End the dynasty!" a young man holding an Obama poster shouted when Chelsea Clinton stepped to the microphone.
All the while, a smile was fixed on Mrs. Clinton's perfectly made-up face - not a hair was out of place - and she betrayed only an occasional glimmer of recognition of the exceedingly narrow straits she must now navigate.
[snip]
Mrs. Clinton added the stop at 3 a.m. Wednesday in an effort to show that she remained committed to campaigning in the remaining six contests on the Democratic primary calendar (West Virginia holds its primary on Tuesday). She may also have been seeking refuge from the dust storm of speculation in Washington over the fate of her campaign. She returned to Washington after the event in Shepherdstown to try to persuade a small group of undecided superdelegates to remain undecided, and then to raise money for her near-broke campaign at a mother-daughter dinner at a hotel.
A pop psychologist might say that Mrs. Clinton was showing symptoms of denial or of being divorced from reality, but she has said for months that she will not quit as long as there remains a mathematical possibility that she could capture the nomination. That chance narrowed considerably Tuesday night, but the path is not totally blocked.
As a brief news conference after her remarks at the college, she said, "It's a new day, it's a new state, it's a new election," her upbeat tone never wavering. "I'm staying in this race until there's a nominee. I'm going to work as hard as I can to become that nominee."
Jay Carson, a campaign spokesman, said that he had spoken privately with Mrs. Clinton on Wednesday morning and that she was in a good mood.
"We feel we did well last night," Mr. Carson said. "She is not someone who is buffeted by the day-to-day ups and downs of the campaign. She is tough and tenacious. That's why she's a phenomenal campaigner and why she'd be a great president."
"She's unflappable," he added. "She's proven that to you in the press and to the voters."
Mr. Carson is divorced from reality if he really feels the Clinton campaign "did well" on Tuesday. Nonetheless, he's right about Hillary being "tough and tenacious." But for the emergence of Barack Obama as an even better candidate, she would almost certainly already be our party's nominee.
UPDATE from Carnacki: From the report from JBdem4usa, it sounds like the NY Times reporter may have gotten it wrong.
